Background
He was born in Dresden on May 26, 1700, of a family whose members were distinguished representatives of Pietism.
He was born in Dresden on May 26, 1700, of a family whose members were distinguished representatives of Pietism.
At the age of ten Zinzendorf was sent to continue his education at Francke's Paedagogium at Halle, and at the age of 16 he advanced to the University of Wittenberg. In the former school he came under the Pietistic influence which was to dominate his later life.
It was by his Moravian missionary coadjutors, notably Peter Boehler, that John Wesley was led to an appreciation of the doctrine of justification by faith alone and to the experience of having "his heart strangely warmed. " Later, however, Wesley and Zinzendorf differed sharply on the issue of sanctification. Zinzendorf's efforts at Halle to form societies of youth for the betterment of personal life and the diffusion of the Gospel gave promise of what he was later to accomplish, but his activities as a reformer began modestly enough. Those outside the church were sought by a weekly, Le Socrate de Dresde, in which a kind of practical philosophy proving religion to be a universal need was expounded and in which an effort was made to reconcile a positive Christian piety with philosophic thought.
Zinzendorf gave asylum on his estate at Berthelsdorf to refugees from Bohemia and Moravia, descendants of the ancient Unitas Fratrum, or Moravian Church, and built a village, Herrnhut, as their center. These refugees provided Zinzendorf with an opportunity for starting and directing a movement of the nature he had contemplated on an international scale. In Germany it remained within the Lutheran Church for a considerable time, but in the mission fields that were established, the work stood out as that of a separate Church. Zinzendorf accommodated himself to the logic of events and to the perpetuation of the Moravian Church, or Unity of Brethren; he was consecrated a bishop and was most active in developing ecclesiastical resources, in establishing schools, and in contributing to Moravian literature.
He became the foremost Moravian hymn-writer, and more than two thousand hymns were attributed to him, many of which have come into common use. His stay in America (1741 - 1742) was devoted mainly to a project for church union and to the promotion of the noteworthy mission among the native Americans.
His idea was to form a Christian association whose members were to waken vital religion within the Lutheran Church by preaching, writing, traveling, and benevolent activity.
The central idea which controlled his life and thought was the one that had gained possession of him in boyhood and which he expressed in the word Herzensreligion, or heart religion, a heartfelt trust in God through living communion with Christ, in whom alone God had revealed himself.
Zinzendorf's theology strongly included the emotional life of the believer as well as the intellectual. He criticized the coldly intellectual approach common in his day, and built a great deal of practice around the transformation of the emotions. He referred to this as the "religion of the heart. "
Zinzendorf married Erdmuthe Dorothea. On 27 June 1757 Zinzendorf married Anna Caritas Nitschmann (24 November 1715 – 21 May 1760), with whom he had been very close for many years.